


Apples

by Linhd



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Corniness, Everyone has secret problems., Fluff, High School, M/M, Rich Harry, Rich Niall, Seven Days AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 22:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linhd/pseuds/Linhd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is a boy who has a face that could brings all the girls to his yard. His tactless, blunt personality however doesn't help them stay, in said yard. </p><p>Harry is a sweet, proper boy, who seems to date a new girl every week. He just wants to find someone that would call him out on his problems, and won't ignore the cracks in his smile.</p><p>#TheStuggleIsReal, Especially when all the girls in this school are only dating guys to show off to their friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> Chapters should be updated every week. At MOST a week in a half. If it's still not up after that amount of time, then it's more than likely that I'm probably fallen and I can't get up. Someone should probably alert the paramedics. 
> 
> Edit:I forgot to mention that this is based on the Manga 'Seven Days'. So if you like that manga... :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Gosh, Thank for so much to Eleanor for beta-ing and being so patient with me. I know everyone thinks that they have the best beta? Well nope, you're all wrong. Mine's the best. 
> 
> (I joke, all betas must be treated equal)

Louis’s exhausted from the late night at the chemists. He could still hear the phantom wailing of the two infants who’d waited in the waiting area for the longer stretch of two hours whilst the chemist remade the medications that had gotten misplaced. It’s like a constant ringing that won’t go away. Daisy was vomiting and sick so his mum had sent him to pick up medicine. It had not been a fun experience. He’s tired and a headache is throbbing at the front of his head.

It doesn’t help that half the girls in the library are tittering next to the window, trying to get a glimpse of the infamous year ten who has gotten the female population to form something short of a cult. They squeal every so often when a curly head of hair crosses the lawn, which is followed by groans of disappointment when the curly head of hair is not, in fact, Mr Harry Styles.

Louis’s heard of the game that Harry likes to play with the girls. It’s Monday, so it’s no surprise that they are in their best pressed blouses that are too tight to be uniform, skirts too short to be proper, and perfume that’s sprayed too liberally that’s only adding to Louis’ headache.

Louis’s not friends with Harry, but he had seen the kid in Archery meets at the beginning of the year. Harry’s not a regular team member who, much to Louis’ annoyance, seems to only show up when the urge tickles his fancy. Louis isn’t Harry’s biggest fan.

Saint Abigail’s Academy was an all girl’s school until three years ago, and from the time Louis had been enrolled, he has seen the male population increase steadily. Unfortunately, the boys are still overwhelmingly outnumbered by the girls. Because of this, Louis counts his lucky stars he has at least one friend who doesn’t count the taste of lipgloss to be sufficient conversation topic. Niall has been Louis’ saving grace to retaining any semblance of normalcy. Without Niall, Louis would have gone crazy, being flirted with by girls at school, and being pecked at by girls at home.

Which is why during study period when Niall whines that he’s starving, Louis doesn’t make fun of him for it, even though lunch was only two periods ago. Niall is laying down on the rough carpet, his head in Louis’ lap as he groans with his arm across his stomach. The duo are on the floor against a bookcase in the library, where students are allowed to lounge during their free periods. It’s the only place they can have any sort of privacy from the nuns that think that if two males touch in any way, those two males will get a STI or something.

Louis yawns loudly in the lapse of complaint coming from Niall, only to have a sharp slap cuff him on the back of his head. He whips his head around to glare at the culprit, only to be faced with a pretty blonde head and a mock annoyed glare. Louis musters up a smile in greeting. Perrie’s the only girl Louis has met in the establishment that isn’t outrightly self centered or superficial, which is the only reason why he includes her on the short list of people he considers friends.

“You’ve got to watch yourself, Tomlinson. I swear, one day you’re going to act like that in front of your girlfriend, and she’ll dump you so fast you won’t even be able to plead your case.” Perrie flattens out her skirt as she sits down across from them, leaning against the tall shelves parallel to Louis and Niall.

Louis grins tiredly as he combs his hair through the soft strands on the nape of Niall’s neck. It’s a wonder how the boy keeps his hair so healthy with all the bleach that’s used to keep it blond. “Don’t you worry your pretty head,” he sighs, “Eleanor broke up with me on Saturday. She said that I wasn’t who she thought I was.” It doesn’t bother him that much anymore. He’s been through so many short term relationships that he feels the barest hints of wistfulness or what if's.

The girls at this school, compared to girls at the other schools, have an abnormal expectation of how boys should be. They all get into relationships with the thought that boys are all proper, charming and polite. When they ask questions like,‘do you think these heels look nice on me?’ and Louis answers honestly, that he thinks those shoes are a bit tacky, they’d get angry. Or, if he tells them that he sometimes doesn’t bother getting dressed on the weekends because he’d rather be lazy and watch reruns on the telly, they get put off. They, more often than not, think he’s not being appropriate when he’s sharing what he’s actually like.

Perrie sighs heavily like she always does when Louis gets out of a relationship. “Louis, you know how these girls are. They’re temperamental. You've got to be more tactful around them. Acting how you act around Niall isn't going to make them stay.”

“It’s not my fault that they expect so much from me. They ask me out, and they want me to act like their pet?” Louis forces out a laugh. ”I don’t think so.”

Niall speaks up, shifting on his back to look up at Louis’ face. “Well with a face like yours, even I find myself thinking you’re really posh, and I already know what you’re really like.”

“Thanks Niall, that means a lot coming from you. I mean, in Niall Language™, that’s practically means that I have the most beautiful face in existence.” Louis fans himself with an exaggerated hand gesture to earn a good group laugh.

“Talking about posh, did you guys hear that Harry isn't in school today?” Both Niall and Louis turn away from each other’s mischievous grins to face Perrie.

“Harry Styles? The lad from year ten?” Niall cocks up an eyebrow, and turns back to Louis. “Isn’t he in archery? Do you know him Lou?”

Louis shakes his head, trying to conjure up what Harry’s face looks like. All he can see is a curly head of brown hair. “No. I mean I’ve seen the kid around, but I haven’t really talked to him,” he explains.

“Yea, well Harry isn’t here today, which means that there will be a lot of sad girls who’re going to need a shoulder to cry on.” Perrie says playfully, “Which means you two could find yourselves a girl whose standards have just been lowered.”

Niall grins at the possibility while Louis makes a sound of offense. “Excuse you, I have girls confessing their feelings to me all the time.” He announces loudly, and breaks out into a grin when Niall and Perrie laugh at the sort of lie. It’s true that he has had no problems getting a girlfriend. The problem is that Louis can’t keep a girl who wants to date him because they genuinely like him, instead of his face.

“Why is Harry such a big deal anyways?” Niall asks when the group giggles finally dies down. Louis’ always a bit in awe of how Niall could care less about the school's gossip. Everyone and their mum’s heard of Harry.

“Well Monday’s the day that Harry’s available for the dating scene again,” Perrie explains sitting up straight and putting on her serious voice. “See, like, at the end of the week Harry will tell whoever he’s dating that he couldn’t fall in love with them, and that he wants to break up.” It silent for a long moment until Niall breaks out in a smothering laugh.

“Wow, that’s a crazy way to go about seeing people.” He laughs. “How do you know, anyway?”

“I went out with him for exactly one week in October.” She’s smiling with teeth showing and her eyes almost closed with how wide the muscles of her cheeks are stretching.

“And why are you so proud of this?” Louis asks with his brow raised. If he’s being honest, he’s a bit afraid of this version of Perrie.

“Becauusee,” she sighs, “it’s like winning the jackpot! He’s so polite and charming and perfect!”

Louis just stares. “Isn’t that a contradiction of what you were saying about him earlier?” He accuses.

“The difference is that I didn’t ask him with any high expectations, he’s really like that naturally. He really is what you lack in the manners department,” Perrie explains happily. Louis rolls his eyes, as Niall clears his throat.

“Anyways,” Niall starts loudly,“a normal bloke like me will never understand pretty people like you. Louis could get any girl, Perrie could get any guy, Harry has ladies lining up for him.” He sighs shaking his head and starts up again. “Speaking of food-”

“No one even mentioned food,” Louis laughs is disbelief,” That was a shit topic changing Niall.”

“No it wasn’t, it was suave as hell,” Niall retorts with a straight face. “I ordered Chinese before the period started and I need one of you to go down to the front gate to pick it up from the guy delivering it.”

Niall had sprained his ankle a few months ago (eight months to be exact) and still uses the excuse that he’s still healing. Perrie follows with the excuse that she’s wearing heels and that she doesn’t want to sprain her ankle like Niall. Louis groans and stands, pushing Niall’s head off his lap in the process.

“On my way down, I’m going to pickup new friends as well,” he calls out.

He could hear Niall cackling hysterically, and Perrie’s ‘Good luck with that.’

-

By the time he gets to the front gate, half the free period had already gone by, and Louis is skeptical that there will be enough time to actually eat the food before their next class. The pavement is clean enough and his navy trousers aren’t really going to be strained by anything so Louis sits down against the black iron wrung gate that circles the academy grounds.

It’s always cloudy in Britain, and today is no exception.  However, the gods seem to hate Louis as the clouds seem to clear as Louis steps out, casting heated rays of blinding light down upon the area. There’s no use trying to pass time with his mobile, the glare brutal as Louis squints at the app that’s open. Louis watches the cars that pass instead, trying to guess which one would be the delivery car, but they all disappoint as they drive past, some without pausing at the corner at the end of the street. This is a goddamn school zone.

Louis never really gave a second thought to Harry, or the girls he dates, but now he finds that he can’t stop thinking about it in his idle time. He can’t help but blame these girl’s outrageous expectations on perfect people like Harry.

A car pulls up a few meters away from the front gate and it brakes so suddenly that it lurches forwards a bit before coming to a complete stop. For a moment, Louis thinks it’s the delivery guy, but he’s pretty sure the Oriental Palace can’t afford to be doing deliveries in a Porsche. Tan suede boots step out from the door that slide up. The first thing that comes to mind is that Harry Styles is breaking uniform, that those are not the regulated black oxfords.

Louis glances into the car, a little too curious on who’s dropping the kid off. A blonde head of hair leans over the consul of the car. The girl in the driver’s seat is on the better side of gorgeous. Louis wonders if that’s Harry’s new girlfriend this week. The kid’s _maybe_ fifteen and he’s pulling girls that look like they’re professional models. If he hadn’t had the short discussion with Perrie before, he probably wouldn’t have even cared that much on who’s dating who. Now that he sees it for himself, it’s intriguing.

Harry stops in front of the gate, and he’s looking up at the building’s highest window, his eyes squinted from the sudden sun, his face looks like it’s in deep thought. He doesn’t even seem to notice that Louis is sitting two meters away. Is this the aloofness that the girls are going for? Louis’s got no chance if that’s the case.

“Hiya,” Louis greets eventually, because contrary to past girlfriends’ beliefs, he is not rude. Plus, it would be more awkward if Harry’s standing there staring off into the distance and suddenly notice Louis sitting here watching him like a creep. Harry looks away from the school, and slowly drags his eyes down to Louis. The corner of his lips curve into a smile but he doesn’t say anything. Louis’s a bit put off by the silence. “So is that your new girlfriend this week? She looks like she’s a bit old for ya, don’t you think?”

For a moment, the middle of Harry’s brows scrunch up, before it’s smoothed out again and the pleasant smile is back. “She’s not my girlfriend, no,” he says with a tone that’s friendly, overly so, in a way that’s a bit off. “But yes, she is a bit older than me.”

“Well I guess it’s going to start then?” Louis asks, pausing at Harry’s questioning expression and clarifies,“the girls with their grabby hands and undying confessions of love?”

Harry blinks owlishly at Louis before he barks out a laugh that seems so unlike what he would do. He promptly slaps a hand over his mouth, seeming to be surprised at himself. “Sorry,” he apologizes after. It’s quick, and panicked. Louis’ a bit confused with why what he’s even sorry about. “I suppose we’ll have to see about that,” he says softly. “To be honest, I didn’t think the older grades knew…”

Louis sits there for a bit, at a lost of what else to say. Surprisingly, Harry doesn’t go in. He stands there quietly, back slightly hunched. Louis reckons that Harry would be the same height as himself if they both were to stand up straight. “You’re Louis right? What are you doing out here anyway?”

“Yea, Louis,” Louis answers. “My friend ordered takeaway and made me come down to get it. They should be here any second,” Louis explains, automatically getting a bit more chipper at the prospect of food. Niall’s starting to rub off on him, he just ate lunch a few ago.

“Oh,” Harry doesn’t explain why he’s still standing out here. Louis doesn’t ask.

Louis gets a bit awkward when it comes to silence, so he tries to fill it with a follow up,“ So are you really fine with dating anyone that asks you first? Even if they’re not your type?”

“My type?” He seems amused, alongside his placid, calm face. “I don’t think anyone could tell what their type was just by looking at someone’s face, would they?”

Louis sighs exaggeratedly as if Harry was being particularly difficult, “What I meant was, isn’t there a certain feature or body type that you like?”

Harry tilts his head back in a slow movement and stares up at the sky in a thoughtful manner. Some girls would think he looks cultured or aloof. Louis’s just scared that he’s going to burn his eyes by staring straight into the sun. “I dunno about that,” he relents. “I don’t really think about looks like that.”

“Do you like the gentle looking girls? Or are you a bum sort of man? The girls that constantly have makeup on to look sexier?” Louis doesn’t believe that there’s a person out there that doesn’t have a type they look for in a potential partner.

Harry is the sort of person that knows when the answer hits them, because his eyes widens innocently; the way he seeks eye contact is just hypnotic.

“Your face,” Harry chirps, delighted that he found an answer to the question.

“My face,” Louis deadpans, suspicious that Harry’s taking the piss of him.

“Yea, I like your face,” he clarifies, “I think that’s what you mean by type.”

Louis snorts, and turns his head back to the road. “In that case, why don’t you just go out with me.” Harry doesn’t say anything back, and Louis’ a bit afraid he went too far with the joking. He doesn’t know if he wants to give a shit about what this kid thinks of him yet. He’s thankfully saved from making a decision by the delivery guy showing up.

“Are you Niall?”

“I am!” He pauses. “I mean, I’m not him, but I’m picking it up for him.” Louis scrambles to stand up and pats his back pocket for his wallet, only for the patting to move to his blazer pockets, and then his front trouser pockets, even though he knows he never puts anything in the front, his trousers being tight enough as it is.

“Umm,” He flushes as he realizes that he had forgotten his wallet in the library.

“Here you go,” Harry hands over money while Louis is distracted, double checking and patting himself down for any loose notes he might’ve forgotten about.

“Thank you, Mr. Horan. Have a nice day.”

“M’ name’s Harry, but you’re welcome. Have a nice day as well.”

-

Harry walks Louis up to the library, more like he leads the way because Louis doesn’t have a choice - the kid’s holding the orange chicken hostage.

“I really did forget my wallet in my rucksack,” Louis tries to explain while trying to keep up with Harry’s ridiculously long strides.

“I believe you,” Harry responds, turning the corner.

“No really, I actually did forget my wallet, I’ll pay you back when we get to the library.” Harry just smiles pleasantly.

“Look, this was not some grand scheme to trick you into paying for my food. I mean, I didn’t know you were going to show up late today, much less right before my food arrives. Harry turns to Louis with a wide smile that’s too perfect, making Louis fidget from the way that it seems unnatural, hollow even.

“I didn’t say it was a trick, Louis. I understand and I believe you.” Harry hands the plain brown paper bag over to Louis who looks down at it apprehensively.

“Wait here then.” Louis instructs, as he shoves the food under his white button up oxford shirt. Any grease stains are worth it when you get to eat in the library. The librarian doesn’t look up as Louis tries to inconspicuously turn his body so the rumpled bulge of his shirt doesn’t show. He hears Harry trying to muffle his laugh, but doesn’t turn to see if it’s because of him or something else.

Niall and Perrie are in the same place where Louis left them, Niall using Perrie’s lap as a pillow now, and Perrie’s on her phone. They both perk up at the sight of Louis, or more likely, the sight of him pulling out the large takeaway bag from under his shirt. They sing their chorus of gratitude to Louis as they start to pull out the classic white cartons containing the food.

Louis is rummaging in his rucksack when he starts to hear the girls near the window giggling. He looks up to find Harry standing at the end of their aisle with two girls to his right giggling forcefully into the back of their hands.

He rolls his eyes and resolutely turns back to his bag, not really eager to hear the flirting that’s inevitably going to be whispered. With money in hand Louis looks back up to catch the pair of girls walking away dejectedly. Harry still has a friendly smile on his face and he didn't seem to realize the girls were downtrodden.

“Here’s the money for the food. You didn’t have to walk all the way here. I could’ve brought it out to you,” Louis hands the money over, though it takes Harry a little while to actually take hold of the notes. Even then, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. He smiles politely and he folds them in half.

“Thanks Louis, but don’t worry about it,” his long fingers slip the bills into the breast pocket of Louis’ blazer. Louis tries to protest, but Harry cuts him off. “I was thinking we could go home together today,” he says, a bit too cheerfully. It takes Louis a while to register what Harry’s said.

“Uhh. Wait what?” He’s takes the money out of his pocket and holds it up to Harry, but he won’t even look at it.

“Did you have something else planned?”

“Actually, I do have something I have to do. Now that I think about it, so do you,” Harry looks at him, confused. “You’re in archery club, I’ve seen you at the beginning of the year.”

“But- uhh.”

“No, don’t give me any excuses Harold. If you wanted out, you should’ve filled out the extraction form like everyone else. But no, I still hear your name being called for attendance every practice, so you’ve got no excuse,” Harry laughs nervously. Louis didn’t know that the word ‘nervous’ was even apart of Harry’s vocabulary.

“Okay,” He complies with a softer laugh when Louis refuses to budge. “Oh, do you have a mobile? Here’s mine, put your number in.”

“What?”

“Like a device that you can call or text people with?”

“Alright then, Styles. No need to be a smart arse,” Louis sasses back. The mobile’s shoved into Louis hand. Louis enters his information before handing it back to Harry’s waiting hands.

“I've got to get to class,” Harry explains, pointing to the exit,” but uhh, I’ll see you later, Louis.” He’s waving goodbye softly in Louis’ direction as he walks away.

“And don’t forget to attend club activities you slacker!” Louis yells back in reply, earning the stares of the girls at the window, Perrie, and everyone else in the general vicinity, save for Niall, who is too busy stuffing his face with Singapore Noodles to bother with simpleton things, like being quiet in the library.

Fuck. Louis stares at the Twenty-Eight Quids in his hand. Louis just let an underclassmen buy him post lunch, lunch.

-

“Since when have you been buddies with Harry Styles?” Perrie hisses as he sits down, grabbing a pair of the complementary chopsticks.

“We’re not friends,” Louis replies as he breaks the utensils apart, the dull crack of wood sounding. It’s the universal sign for:  _shut the fuck up, I’m about to eat and I don’t need you yapping in my ear while I’m doing it._

Niall, for his part doesn’t seem to be bothered at all. He’s just happy he got his food.

-

Louis sits in maths and tries not to take out his phone, as the nun that teaches the class is strict on electronics. That is, until his phone vibrates twice in quick succession.

_Hey, I just realized, I never gave you my number. So here is my number. xx_

_Oh, this is Harry, by the way. xx_

What kind of guy signs their texts with xx’s?

_Oh thank god you told me, I usually have hooligans from the petrol station sending me messages. Glad it’s Harry and not some girl looking for a quick shag. And who the hell signs their texts these days anyways?_

_That’s not safe Louis, petrol station quickies are not sanitary. I tend to stick to clerks at Waitrose. I think signing texts is nice. xx_

Louis finds himself laughing aloud at Harry’s reply. It’s nice being able to joke to someone other than Niall. Louis rolls his eyes at the xx’s and enters the new number under Harry xx.

_‘Course you'd shop at Waitrose, you rich kids are too spoilt._

-

Louis’ last period is a bit odd, because there are younger girls taking advanced classes in it. Usually they’ll flirt with him if they have a chance to talk to him directly, but they've never outright stared at him or studied him in groups like this before. Louis tries not to look back, because if he thinks about what it implies too much, that they’re looking at him because of some rumor or if there’s hype about what it’d be like to date him, he will snap.

He stares resolutely at the front of the class, even though English Literature is about as entertaining as maths.

After class, Harry’s there, waiting by the door with a mild smile on his face. He sees Louis, and when Louis walks past him, Harry follows close on his heel, his smile never changing.

“Harry, I didn’t know you were a stalker.”

Harry stops in his tracks, causing Louis to turn around to see what wrong. Harry has the most confused look on, brows scrunched together and lips curved down.

“I was kidding,” Louis says slowly. Harry face relaxes, so Louis tries to go back to his joking tone. “But it is a bit odd how you know what classes I have.”

The tiny, plastic smile makes a reappearance on his face, “I asked a girl what your last class was.” Which... explains the girls staring.

“Why?” Louis sighs, a bit exasperated at Harry’s antics. He’s never had anyone force their friendship on him with so much effort. So Harry brought him lunch, but that doesn’t mean that they’re suddenly best mates.

Harry’s suddenly confused again. “I thought that… Well, most people want me to walk them to-”

Louis cuts him off again, “Harry, do I look like a puppy to you?” Harry shakes his head so Louis continues, “I mean… if you want to walk with me to my locker or summat, I guess I don’t mind. Mates hang out all the time, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. Most people’s wants are over rated”

“Okay,” Harry says, coming out quiet and meek.  For the first time, Harry’s smile comes out tentatively and small, but _real_. Louis smiles back widely and continues to his locker, Harry still following.

-

Despite not going to practice, Harry is quite good at archery. Louis would even go as far as to say that he is impressed. The way Harry looks when he draws the bow makes Louis understand what Perrie means when she says he looks like a completely different person. “It’s practically a scam Louis, you look so polite and refined when you do archery that the girls can’t help but think you’re more charming than you really are.”

Halfway through practice, it’s apparent that not everyone is as impressed. A few of the older, more experienced lower sixth students in the back start trash-talking Harry. Louis grinds his teeth, annoyed, because really there’s not suppose to be individual conversations at practice, it takes away from the focus that’s required.

“Wow, who does he think he is? He comes to practice like what? Four times a year?” They're not even trying to be quiet.

“I know, and he always brings the gaggle of girls to ruin everyone’s focus,” Louis will gaggle their fucking face. Which, doesn't make sense, but it's the thought that counts.

Louis glances to the fence that blocks off the range from the footie field and sure enough, there are girls there watching, most of them watching Harry. As much as they giggle, laugh, and squeal, they’re not as annoying as the other students in the back.

“Oi!” Louis snaps suddenly, making a year eleven student misfire, his arrow flying into the target two rows over. The younger student looks at Louis with a frown, but doesn’t say anything. He knows Louis pulls rank here; he’s captain. “No chatter in the back ladies. Right now you’re louder than the gaggle of girls that Harry brings along, so hush up.”

The coach watching nods in Louis’ direction. Louis nods back and all the students go back to their practice. When Louis goes back to supervising his section of the range, he finds Harry watching him. Harry sends him another discreet smile in gratitude. Louis beams back brightly, wanting Harry to copy his expression. Harry would look more genuine if he didn't have the rehearsed smile constantly plastered on his face.

Everyone is pitching in to cleaning up and retrieving arrows when Harry asks what Louis is going to do now that practice is over. Louis explains that Niall gives him a ride home, to which Harry seems to hesitate on what to say next.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then, Louis,” it's an unsure goodbye and Harry is slow at retrieving his bags, waiting for Louis to pick up his own bag before waving a weak goodbye. Louis nods his farewell at Harry as he goes in the opposite direction, shrugging his blazer back over his button up.

 

On the way to the carpark, it hits Louis with so much force that he pauses mid step. The question that he asked that morning,“why don’t you go out with me then?” Did Harry take that seriously? He couldn’t have, Louis frowns. Harry didn’t even know if he was gay.

In the car, Niall’s eating leftovers from the earlier takeaway with his window rolled down and loud music wafting out the expensive speaker system.

Saint Abigail’s school comprises mostly of students from wealthy families and Niall’s is no exception. Most of them can afford new cars as soon as they’re of age, while Louis is mooching rides off Niall. Louis is here on an archery scholarship and he fits in mostly because he looks regal. He looks like he comes from old money when really, he lives a moderately comfortable life like the rest of the British middle class. He does his own laundry, cooks his own meals, and takes care of his sisters. There are no maids, chefs, or au pairs at the Tomlinson household.

“Niall, would you ever date Harry?”

Niall, bless him, takes the strange question in stride. “If the lad keeps buying me cheap takeaway, I’d marry him,” Niall says through a mouthful of mush. It’s not like Niall can’t afford it, but he likes when others care enough to buy it for him. Which is why he’s friends with Louis, who offered up his sweets bar when he heard Niall’s stomach growl on the third day of year ten.

Grinning at Niall’s easy going attitude, Louis picks up a stray green bean sticking out of the carton and bites down, only to have the juice inside pop and stain his blazer with a splash of oil.

“Fuck!”

Niall laughs his arse off and offers to have his maid get the stain out for Louis. Louis accepts as he’s only got one of these blazers.

Niall puts the car into gear and starts reversing out of the parking lot. Once they’re out on wider roads and the car’s barreling along fasts enough that the wind blows Louis’ hair wildly through the passenger window, Louis makes up his mind. He resolves to ask Harry if there’s anything that he had missed this morning. There’s no need to stress about it, really, when the person whose opinion matters most to Louis cares more about food than social proprieties.

 

 


	2. Tuesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter should be updated same time next week. At MOST a week in a half. If it's still not up after that amount of time, then it's more than likely that I'm probably fallen and I can't get up. Someone should probably alert the paramedics. 
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks to my (my) /my/ beta Eleanor for being really patient with me! (Sorry I've never had a beta before, I'm very happy.) What I write is rubbish, and you all have Elle to thank for making my gibberish into legible thoughts.

Louis wakes up the next morning in the guest bedroom. Daisy had still been sick, and had crawled into louis’ bed and never left, isolating Louis from his own bed. He’s not woken up by the smell of food, or his mum calling his name. It’s to the shrill, shit speaker of his mobile, the excerpt of an old Panic at the Disco song playing. He groans and blindly searches for the device, only to accidentally knock it off the side of the bed. He blinks down at the floor while it lays there, blinking obnoxiously in the dark room. Louis unplugs it from the charger before bringing it up to his face.

Louis grunts tiredly, his voice is raspier than it normally is from waking up disoriented at - Louis squints for the digital clock on the bedside table, his eyes widening as it focuses on the blue numbers shining back-  _Five_ in the goddamn morning.

_“Good Morning Louis :) xx”_

Louis groans loudly. He’s never going to be getting back to sleep now. He looks at the contact name on top and grits his teeth. He’s trying extremly hard to will away the image of kicking Harry fucking Styles in the balls.

-

Harry had a hard time sleeping last night. He had asked for tea and sleeping medicine from the maid but it hadn’t help. He didn’t want to sleep if he was being honest with himself. Waiting was what he was really doing. Waiting for the sound of a car coming up the drive, or a ruckus at the front entrance signaling a drunken return. He keeps telling himself that Gemma was going to come home and rest, but she didn’t. She never does.

He’s just laying in bed, waiting for the sun to rise so he can do the same. An hour before the first rays are due to peek, his phone rings with a familiar melody. Taylor had set it as her personal ringtone the day after she met Harry. “I don’t want to be like everyone else in here,” she had explained while going through his contacts. She knew what she wanted in a way that only older girls could have known.

He knew he shouldn’t answer the phone, but he can’t help the urge to talk to her. He slides the screen to accept the call and her American twang echos out before he could say his hello.

“Hi Harry. Be a doll and get dressed will you? I want to eat to go out to eat this morning.” He smiles despite himself; He loves that she’s assertive.

“‘M sorry. I went out with you yesterday because I wasn’t dating anyone, but I can’t today,” he says slowly, apologetically even. He never wants to disappoint Taylor.

“Oh right, I keep forgetting that you have the weekly dating thing,” she laughs. She doesn’t have a happy tone, though, which makes Harry anxious about what he’s suppose to say. “So is she cute? I bet she is, you always get the cute ones.”

“Ummm,” Harry doesn’t know how to answer that exactly, he’s sure Taylor wouldn’t think badly about him if he tells her Louis’s a guy, but there’s always the fear that Taylor wouldn’t approve. So, he tries to avoid it.

“I wouldn’t call them cute.” Harry thinks about how wide Louis laughs, how brash his humour is, and how honest Louis seems to be. The question about what his type is runs through his memories with Louis’ face looking up at him in the rare sun. “I think beautiful would be a more suitable word.”

She laughs again, her voice soft and sweet. “More beautiful than me?” Harry looks down at his feet, shoulders slumping. He hates to compare people, because everyone is different. He doesn’t tell her this though. She loves to compare people; she’s compared everyone he’s dated to herself.

“I uhh- I don’t really think I could compare you two. You’re completely different in every way,” his voice is quiet and he doesn’t want to go down this path. Taylor doesn’t seem to notice, as she barrels on.

She giggles lightly, melodic, and familiar. “That’s what I like about you Harry, you’re just so nice to me. It’s okay, I know I’m prettier,” she’s joking, Harry thinks. She always had this brand of humour. In a lot of ways, it’s similar to Louis, except Harry could tell when Louis is joking. “So can I see you on Sunday?”

Harry looks away from the wall he’s staring at in hopes that changing the position he’s lying in would get him out of answering the problem. “I’m going to hang up now,” he warns, “I really can’t be talking about this with you. I’ll talk to you another time.” He presses end, and prays to god that she isn’t cross with him.

Harry always wants to give the person he’s with that week a fair chance. He does everything in his power to stay faithful and polite like he’s seen in films and read in books. He never gets that feeling though, that they would do the same for him. Even with Taylor, who has stayed by his side and she doesn’t show any sign of leaving, he doesn't feel like she’s putting in the same effort as him.  

The thing is she’s the closest he’s gotten to something permanent. She was the first person to be there for him, which is why he always comes back to her at the end of the week. He can’t help but want more though, to want someone who would care about him as much as he needs. Someone to maybe ask him if he’s okay without actually showing that he needs to be asked.

There’s no point staying in bed to dwell anymore, because thinking about what he wants is dangerous. He sits up in bed and pulls up Louis’ name from his mobile. He sends his good morning text like he does for everyone he’s dated. It makes him happy when the morning texts he sends others, could make them happy too.

Harry wonders why Louis is even single in the first place. From what he’s heard, Louis is quite popular as well, which is the reason why it surprised him when Louis asked him out in the first place. He puts the phone down, intending to go to the bathroom, but it rings before he gets out of his bed.  

“Good Morn-”

“Are you an idiot?” Louis voice is raspier in the morning and snaps at him frustratingly with a bite, different from the gentle voice of everyone else talks to him with.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve got to be an idiot to send a good morning text to anyone at five in the morning,” Louis’ voice is scolding Harry, in a way that Harry’s only ever seen on the telly. It sends a thrill down his spine.

Harry doesn't try to stop the bubbling laugh that comes out alongside his apology. “I’m sorry, yes, I’m an idiot,” he agrees.

”What kind of an apology is that?” Louis snaps, “Shouldn’t you be somber and sound… I dunno, apologetic?” Harry hears rustling on the other end and  the sound of heavy curtains being pulled open. “What kind of human are you? Waking me up at this ungodly hour and now I can’t go back to sleep.” Harry giggles into his shoulder as he listens to Louis rant.

“How can I make it up to you? I could buy you breakfast or lunch?” Harry offers.

Louis scoffs on the other end of the line. “Don’t think you can buy my forgiveness, Styles.” There’s a frustrated noise and the sound of water running. When Louis talks again, his voice is strangely muffled. “M’ so an’ry wit jou righ now, I juss wanna pun’ch yer in yer pretty face.” Harry grins widely as he deciphers Louis’ garbled words, talking while brushing his teeth at the same time. It’s strangely surprising to find that Louis has a temper that he apparently doesn’t keep on a leash. He’s captivatingly normal. There’s the sound of spitting and water gurgling before Louis talks again.

“The only thing you could do is go to morning archery practice, you slacker. And since I’m up so early I might as well use the time to practice.”

The response is so far from what Harry’s used to that he doesn’t know what to say in response. Usually when he upsets a girl, they would try to get him to do something extravagant to make it up to them; a designer purse, an expensive dinner, sometimes even sexual favours. He’s never felt passionate enough to do anything with those types of girls, but it doesn’t stop them from asking.

“Oi, you wanker! Don’t think you can get out of this if you hang up,” Louis yells after a moment of Harry’s silence, “this is not optional.” There more rustling and the mobile seems to have gotten dropped twice before Louis picking it up to his face again with a muttered swear.

Children’s voices seep through the speaker and Louis lowers his complaint to a quiet hiss, “This is what you get for waking me up for no reason, just watch me get my revenge you twat.” The line goes silent and his phone beeps twice signaling the end of the call.

Harry looks at his phone, and stares blankly at the tall white walls of his bedroom. It bursts out of him uncontrollably, laughter that he couldn’t stop even if his mum was here to tell him to shut up. Louis Tomlinson, is something else entirely. As he gets up to shower, he thinks that ideally, he’d like to have this with the same person every week.

-

Harry’s standing at the front gate when Louis gets to the school. He’s got the school’s vest on instead of the blazer and he’s on his phone leaning casually against the open gate. The sky is dull and grey with no yellow sunlight, just white cloudy overcast, and yet, Harry’s still able to look radiant somehow.  

He looks up as Louis approaches and the bland expression he’d had while on his phone automatically turns into a perfect smile. It’s starting to become disconcerting how Harry’s emotions tend to run. Louis frowns and lightly slaps him a few times on his right cheek as greeting, wiping the unsettling smile off Harry’s lips to replace it with an unsure scrunch of the eyebrows.

“For each morning that you wake me up early for no good reason, those slaps will turn into punches,” he threatens as he continues walking, heading for the range.

It’s always quiet this early in the morning as a lot of the girls don’t get dropped off until classes are about to start and no one goes to the outer fields for practice in the morning, opting to go when it’s mandatory in the afternoon or evening. There’s dew on the grass, making the suede on Harry’s boots turn darker. Louis distracts himself from the awkward question of the week by noticing all the little details of the day.

He isn’t quite sure how to broach the questions. It feels like it’s brewing, burning up the taste buds in his mouth. This topic is a little above even his pay grade, and Louis’ brought up some questionable topics in his life. It’s not really his fault because it’s a damn sweat worthy question. Christ, if anyone could bring up ‘I was wondering if we’re dating by any chance, because when I asked you before, I wasn't being serious,’ and be sweet free, Louis will pay them… the last eight pounds in his pocket.

Louis feels like he should ask this very soon, because Harry is walking close enough by his side that his fingers are brushing up against Louis’ hands. Louis is reasonably freaked out on whether it’s on accident or because they may or may not be dating. The fourth time Harry’s ring finger skims Louis thumb, is when Louis snaps.

“Jesus Christ! If you’re doing that on purpose, I will beat you with all seven hundred pages of my chemistry book!” Which may have been harsher than he intended because Harry looks a little hurt, causing now Louis feels a bit bad.

“What do you mean?” The look of hurt snaps into a smile like a rubber band. Did he not just have the look of a kicked dog a second ago? Louis tries to override the potential disaster by changing the subject. It’s now or never he supposes.

“Never mind, I just- uhh. Can I ask you a question?” He blurts out, his eyes actively avoiding Harry’s attempt at eye contact. Someone has got to give the boy an award for the effort he puts into eye contact. Harry goes along to the subject change and nods yes. “Are we dating right now?”

Harry’s answer is immediate, “Of course.”

“Oh,” Louis looks away from Harry’s questioning expression and stares off to the far goal of the footie field. He supposes that it doesn’t surprise him much; he suspected Harry assumed they were dating. Louis takes another second to contemplate if he’s even okay with this, with dating a guy. It’s only for a week. It’s not that big of a problem, he supposes. He’s got no problems against gay people, he’s just never thought he was gay. He could care less what the other students at this school thinks about him, the only thing that could potentially go wrong is that Louis doesn’t know if he’s okay with anything intimate that might happen.

He’s heard rumors that Harry doesn’t really do anything with the girls, as in he avoids all sexual interactions. “ _Even if it was just a kiss, he would find a way to get out of it,_ ”  Perrie had said wistfully. If that were true, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything, really. It could be like hanging out with Niall, except there’s a different label that goes along with it.

Louis turns to Harry with a happy grin. “I’ll do my best to enjoy it then,” he says, determinedly walking to the range. “Come along, we’ve still got to practice.”

-

As they’re gearing up, Harry seems distinctly uncomfortable, fidgeting, and now _he’s_ the one avoiding eye contact. Louis throws his gloves onto the wooden bench they’re occupying with a loud sigh.

“Oi, Harry. If you’re that opposed to practicing, you don’t have to. You can go, I hate people that go along with things when they really don’t want to.”

Harry hesitates before he shakes his head. “That’s not it, I don’t mind practicing,” He says, it’s slow is what it is, the way he speaks, like he’s literally choosing every word before letting his vocal cords manufacture sounds to come out. Louis raises his brow and doesn’t call Harry out on it, but Harry’s obviously uncomfortable about something.

“Well cheer up mate, you’re being shifty as fuck,” Louis complains, reaching his pointer fingers out to physically move the corners of Harry’s mouth up into a curve. ”Do me a favor and give me a smile.” Harry maneuvers his lips into a perfect example of a smile. All traces of afflicting emotions gone. “Well done, now how about a real one cause that one’s creeps me out a bit if I’m being honest,” Louis says, pulling his hands back.

“What?” Harry’s bewildered expression is adorable and Louis forces himself to look away. No need to make it weird by staring too much.

Louis picks his gloves up and tugs them on before answering, “I mean...” he pauses and levels a look at Harry. “I’m just being honest here, yea? Don’t get cross,” he adds as a warning, “your smile faking powers are great, but they aren’t better than my detection powers. And I hate when people are fake Harry, so just be yourself. It’ll make this week a lot more enjoyable.”

“This week?”

Louis stares at Harry blankly. “Yea, this week. That’s how long this has got to go on right?”

“I don’t-”

“Oh, come off it. We all know how you play this game,” Louis says with a laugh, picking up his bow and turning to the targets. There’s no need for Harry to deny the facts, everyone already knows.

Harry grimaces. He’s tempted to break this off right now because it won’t be how he wants it to be. This isn’t a game. There is no deadline. He just can’t seem to muster up enough attraction for the other person to prolong it for longer than a week.

Even as his head works out the words to break up with Louis, the sounds won’t form on his tongue. His chest is throbbing as he watches Louis line up the arrow. Despite Louis thinking it’s not a serious thing, Harry feels something for Louis. He feels like he could honestly like Louis, who can tell when Harry’s not okay. Louis, who could tell when he pretended that he was alright gives Harry hope, is all.

-

Louis doesn't tell anyone that he’s dating Harry, but he suspects that Niall knows. Niall’s coming up the stairs just as Louis and Harry are parting ways to go to their own classes. Niall just stares for a second and continues up to Louis. He greets Harry with the same enthusiasm he greets everyone, before slapping Louis on the back and that was the end of that. There was no words about it, but he’s sure that Niall knows.

-

During lunch, Harry shows up again, waiting quietly outside the door of Louis’s class. Louis a little exasperated; these Edward Cullen tendencies are not going to fly with Louis as Bella Swan. Louis is not a damsel in distress that needs help getting to class. In fact, he avoids doing this for the girls he’s dated. Harry showing up is especially unwarranted when the girls start to pounce on Harry, creating a bottleneck at the door, and making it impossible to slip through.

“It’s just that we know you weren’t here yesterday morning and we didn’t see you with anybody today, so we were just wondering if you’re going out with anyone yet?”

Harry’s eyes meet Louis’ through the gaps in the crowd before he grins shyly. Louis rolls his eyes, and raises his voice. “Sorry ladies, Harold here is with me this week.” The overlapping of voices go on for a few seconds, before it cuts off abruptly, making the silence entirely too scary. One giggle from an older girl in the crowd is all it takes before all the girls follow suit and start to giggling as well. It starts to sound a little demonic; they’re all sounding like they’re possessed.

Yes, Louis emphasizes again, Harry has these girls in a cult.

“You’re so funny when you joke, Louis,” a few of them say, fluttering their eyelashes at him. He roll his eyes, knowing that one of them had gone out with, and was broken up by Harry two months ago, and that she’s only flirting because the other girls are flirting.

“Yea, we’re glad that you and Harry are mates now, but you guys can’t be dating,” another girl says, matter-of-factly, which, _rude_. Who are they to say who he can and can’t be involved with?

“Haha, Yes, I’m so funny,” Louis deadpans, squeezing past two girl, accidentally-on-purpose elbowing one in her chest in the process. He doesn’t even feel bad - he’s a petty person when he wants to be. He’s not sure if he does it to make a point or if it’s just something he did on accident, but Louis grabs Harry’s hand and drags the boy away.

-

Louis addresses the problem almost immediately. “Listen Harry, you don’t have to wait at my beck and call, yeah? If you want to hang out, we could just meet up, I don’t have the same… standards as the girls you’re normally with, okay?”

“I like to, though. I like to be there for you, even if you don’t need me.” Harry looks so earnest, and sincere that Louis doesn’t argue it further. He supposes that it’s not too bad to have Harry there. He’s not used to it, but as long as Harry knows it’s not an obligation it’s fine.

“I’m not Bella Swan . I’m just going to say that now,” Louis relents grumpily, to which Harry only looks confused. It makes Louis feel silly for alluding to Twilight, when the other company doesn’t get the reference.  

Louis lets go of Harry’s hand as soon as they turn the corner, but Harry takes it back just as quickly. Louis turns his head, questioningly, only to see that Harry’s holding him with an elated expression.

“I want to hold your hand,” He explains grinning wide.

Louis answers, “If you want.” He’s held hands with Niall before. Albeit as a joke and they were only doing to get a laugh, but it’s still hand holding. It feels strange with Harry. Obviously, this is not a joke and it’s longer than a few moments. Louis could see some stares gazing over their connected hands and is physically able to tell the moment when Harry notices the stares, too, because Harry’s grasp on Louis’ hand becomes something short of a death grip.

Harry sits with Louis as he doesn’t have a permanent seat in the cafeteria. He says that he sits with whomever he’s involved with that week. Louis sort of feels bad that Harry doesn’t seem to have anyone who are just friends with him, without any romantic undertones involve.

As they’re in line to pay for their meals, Louis turns to Harry, who won’t look anywhere but forward. They’ve let go of each other’s hands to hold their food, but there are still some girls looking over curiously.

“Harry, are you alright?”

Harry nods his head, his smile splayed out tightly, “Yeah, yes of course. I’m fine.”

Louis watches him a bit more and no, Harry is not fine. The grip he has on his plate is not fine, the stressed smile he’s trying to maintain is also not fine. Louis doesn’t know how he could make it any better, though. He doesn’t think they’re at a stage where he could offer to fight everyone for the kid. They’re not even that far into the friends stage.

-

Niall is already at their table before they get there. He lets out a loud, “Hey, Tommo!” as Louis sits down. When Harry seats himself next to Louis, Niall just grins and shouts out an equally friendly,  “Hey, Haz!” Thank the lord for Niall Horan. Louis could kiss the boy. That was incredibly inappropriate, but it’s all figurative.

Perrie is the last to sit down, having to always be fashionably late to everything. Unlike Niall, she isn’t as god-send in the way she handles it. Her stares are about as subtle as how a cow chews.

“Hello, I’m Harry.” Harry introduces himself with a wave and confidence that seems to have come out of his arse. The way Harry’s emotions change is like a blinking sign, constantly changing. Louis probably would have whiplash if he pays too close attention.

Perrie all but beams a grin at him as she directs her eyes at Louis. Louis could feel the phantom burn of her laser stare burning up the fringe of his hair. “Oh Harry, I know who you are. We went out for a week a few months ago. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

Way to lead the elephant into the already claustrophobic room, Louis thinks, annoyed, glaring at her. She meets his eyes defiantly, daring him to talk back. She knows. Louis’ sure that she knows.

Harry’s charming, is the thing. The way he handles it without hesitation and the way he replies is very admirable. “Of course I remember you, Perrie. You like honeydew in your fruit salad and you hate tomatoes in your actual salads,” Harry grins blindingly, his teeth on full display. “I was just worried that you didn’t remember me. I didn’t think I made that big of an impression.”

Perrie is bought over, just like that. You could tell with the way that she her cheeks her flushed, having nothing to do with her makeup.

Wow, this kid knows to win someone over like an arse kissing professional. Had Louis not seen Harry’s smile drop almost immediately afterwards, when Perrie’s turned away, he would have thought the performance was real. Harry is just so adamant on pretending that he’s completely okay. Louis sneaks his right hand under the table, blindingly trying to find Harry’s left hand. He gives Harry a reassuring pat before going back to the food.  

-

When Louis meets up with Perrie and Niall in the library, no one says anything about it even though Louis knows for sure that they both know. They’re both waiting expectantly for him to talk about it first. He doesn’t say anything, because this is the same as any other relationship. Louis would like to think that Harry being a boy doesn’t change anything. They’ve never prodded before, when he was dating girls.

Louis knows that Niall would be perfectly fine with it, if Louis realizes that he’s anything other than straight. The only unknown is how Perrie would take it. If she turns out to be not okay with it, Louis would have to reconsider their friendship. He thinks that if he develops feelings for Harry, he would still be the same person, and if she can’t deal with it, he doesn’t want the drama.

At the end of free period, Louis waits with his rucksack over one shoulder. Perrie is on her phone, but she knows that Louis is waiting for her.

“Are you okay with this?” he asks bluntly.

“Louis, to be honest with you, I’m kind of relieved,” Perrie replies, scrolling through her phone, “I see the way you look at me sometimes, and I hate to break it to you, babe, I’m not interested.” She looks up from her phone and winks at him jokingly. Louis laughs out loud at her, relieved that this is one less problem to worry about.

“In your dreams, Perrie.”

“I think you’re talking about your dreams, Lou,” she banters back, before her face turns somber, “Louis, in all seriousness, I was only hurt that you didn’t tell me before he just showed up at our table. Because according to you, yesterday, you two weren’t even friends.”

Louis doesn’t really feel bad for it. He’s just found out this morning.  So, he voices it, “I don’t feel bad for it, not telling you I mean. I just found out this morning.”

She shakes her head at him and laughs. She pinches his cheek harshly before walking out, leaving him to stand alone in the aisle.

-

They don’t see each other until the end of the day until Harry shows up again at his last class and it only serves to add fuel to the fire. They’re whispering loudly now and from the corner of his eyes, Louis could see them whispering into each other’s ears. Harry doesn’t show that he’s affected by it other than the tightening grip on his bag .

There’s no archery today, so there’s no rush to pack. The hall that Louis’ locker is on is starting to empty, with everyone rushing to go home instead. Louis asks a question that’s been burning on his mind since his free period exchange with Perrie.

“Harry? I have one more question. Answer this honestly alright?”

Harry nods his eyes big, as if it were the only way to show how attentive he is.

“And don’t spare like, my feelings or whatever. I promise I won’t be angry,” Louis warns.

“I’ll be as honest I could be,” Harry promises earnestly, starting to play with his sleeve. Louis’s always found it adorable when girls do it. With Harry’s big eyes, it takes the whole innocent affect to a whole new level.  

“Do you even like guys?” Louis asks, “I mean, are you only doing this because I asked you?” Louis’s watching Harry’s face for any emotion changes. It’s a pleasant surprise that Harry doesn’t break into a smile to cover up anything that’s less than happy.

“I- I’ve never thought about guys like, in a romantic way before,” Harry says slowly, “but, now that I’ve thought about it, I don’t find myself minding.”

Louis nods in understanding and tries to form his next question as delicately as possible. “Then it’s just when people oppose to this, that you get uncomfortable?”

Harry looks down to his feet as he answers, his hair hanging limply over his forehead. “I don’t know,” he says quietly, “I just don’t like it when people don’t like me.”

Louis’s never had this problem with himself, but he could see where Harry’s coming from. He does have empathy because it must not be easy. “Harry, do you want to break this off? I mean it would be easier for you, I reckon, if we did,” he suggests lightly.

“No.” It’s an immediate response and it’s only the second time that Louis’s heard Harry talk faster than his slow drawl. Harry continues with his normal pace, “I mean, I don’t mind dating you, Louis. I feel like it’s okay if you aren’t nice to me, because you don’t seem to be nice to anyone.”

“That’s true, I hate everyone in existence. Ever,” Louis jokes, rolling this eyes at the accusation. “I figure I only have friends because of my face.”    

“That’s not true,” Harry counters, giggling like a school girl. “I like you because you’re really honest with me.

Louis watches Harry closely, and realizes he's happy. Louis lets himself joke along, “You’re not special curly, I’m honest with everyone.”

-

Louis explains that he can’t really hang out because his sister is sick and he has to go home and take care of her. He doesn’t let Harry’s saddened expression change his mind, which is why he offers that Harry could come along if he wants. He also doesn’t let harry’s ecstatic expression affect him. He just hides his smile into a cough.

Niall drives them to Louis house, even though Harry offered to call his driver. Louis had slapped Harry lightly and berated him for being rich. To which Harry defends that it’s not his fault his parents have money. Niall ignores them both by turning the radio on and singing along louder than necessary. Harry joins in much to Louis horror. Louis feels better that they could be real friends when this week is done.

-

Louis’ sisters are all piled onto the sofa watching some show with innuendos that probably fly right over their small heads. Harry is all smiles and soft steps, his steps were already extra soft, really. Daisy is the only one in the single arm chair, Louis’ mum probably isolating her to keep the illness from spreading. They’re giggling in the seats, wiggling around in anticipation.

Louis pulls Harry inside with a tug on his chest. “These are my minions, they do all my bidding,” Louis introduces with his best villain voice, he leans closer to Harry and quietly introduces them by name, pointing to each girl as he goes through the list. Louis turns back to the room when he’s done, and announces loudly, “Hello minions, I’m home.” And that’s their cue. They all tumble out of their seat with maniac shrieks, falling on top of each other to get to Louis first. Lottie gets there first as she hugs to his legs. Louis’s crouching on the floor giving each eager face a tight hug and a smacking kiss.

Louis picks Daisy up, she’s the last to make it to the group, stumbling along, the sickness making her slightly disoriented. Daisy giggles tiredly as Louis kisses her. She’s  always been ticklish. When the kisses stop, she immediately hides her face into Louis’ neck, and watches Harry with one eye half drooped. They’re all very curious of the stranger in their house.

“Who’s that?” Lottie whispers in a voice that’s too loud to really be a whisper.

“This is Harry, everyone. He’s the newest minion in this clan.”

Harry waves joyfully at everyone with a lively, “Hello!” Phoebe’s the only one who waves back. Everyone else, either too nervous or not interested.

“If he’s your minion, too, does that mean he’s our brother?” Fizzy asks loudly, letting go of Louis’ elbow to edge over to Harry as if he’ll bite.

Harry coughs abruptly, turning his eyes to search out Louis’. His expression a little panicked.

Louis laughs at Harry and treks over to the arm chair, placing Daisy down, before waving everyone over as well. He sits down in the arm chair, letting Daisy clamour onto his lap. “Harry is not going to be our brother,” he says with mirth. They all “awww” as if they were truly sad about this.

He turns to Harry, who’s standing at one end of the sofa, being very quiet, and showing no sign that he’s going to move. “Sit down,” Louis directs, pointing to the end of the sofa that’s unoccupied. The girls are all talking happily among each other, but Phoebe breaks apart from the group and climbs haphazardly onto Harry’s lap.

She claps her hands onto his cheeks and looks at him very seriously, “Don’t worry Harry, even if you’re not our brother, I will teach you how to be a good minion.” Harry giggles sweetly at her before snapping his attention back to Louis with questioning eyes to see if this is okay, it’s like he’s never interacted with children before.

When Louis just grins his approval, Harry turns back to her and whispers, “Thank you” They both giggle like they’ve just shared the biggest secret. When they settle down, Harry hesitantly holds her middle when she leans back into his chest.

Louis gets up to make Daisy take her medicine and gets snacks for the lot. When he asks what Harry wants to drink, he can’t make up his mind so Louis throws him a carton of apple juice that his mum buys for the twins. Harry looks like it’s the most fascinating thing he’s ever drank out of.

-

Phoebe won’t leave Harry alone, always clinging to him and telling him little stories that have no point. Harry always responds with his own stories. He has an innocent child-like quality that’s all his own. They don’t do anything special with the girls, nothing more exciting than watching whatever programme is on. When Louis begrudgingly tugs out his homework, and Harry’s happy to start his as well.

-

When his mum comes home, she finds Daisy asleep, swaddled in blankets in her chair. Fizzy and Lottie have gone upstairs to play with each other, because Louis and Harry doing homework is very boring for little girls. Phoebe is hanging off Harry’s shoulders, draping herself over his back as he’s hunched over on the floor reading out a passage from his literature class. She’s half asleep, her face buried in his curly hair, lulled by the movement of Harry’s breathing.

-

Louis’ done with his homework, and he’s too bored doing nothing while Harry finishes his, so he cajoles Harry to stop and do something else. Louis’ sitting reclined in the sofa, flipping through channels absently while Harry ‘s laying down across the whole length of it, head on the armrest, and feet trying to get a reaction out of Louis by wiggling his toes into Louis’ thighs. Neither notice Jay when she appears in the doorway.

“Harry, sweetheart, do you want to stay for dinner?” Harry looks up from Phoebe, who’s sleeping with her head on his chest, and retracts his feet from digging further underneath Louis’ legs.

Harry nods enthusiastically as he accepts, “That would be lovely, Thank you.” Jay smiles back warmly, her expression completely enamoured. Harry seems to have that effect on everyone. Fake or not, his gentle mannerism is always there to charm the knickers off all females in the general vicinity.  

“Your mum and your sisters are amazing,” Harry says quietly, after Jay leaves for the kitchen. The only light coming from the floor lamp in the corner and the glow of the telly. Louis sees a wet gleam in Harry’s eyes and for a second, he thought it was just the reflection of the dim light. Harry’s face is heartbreakingly melancholy, though, and it can’t possibly be anything but a tear.

“Thanks mate, you’re the only person that’s met them other than Niall,” Louis says back, carefully, not really wanting to make Harry more upset, but also not wanting to call him out on it and make him uncomfortable.

“Is it because you're really protective of them?” Harry asks fondly.

Louis shakes his head and grins. “Nope, all the girls I’ve dated were never really interested in meeting them.”

“Well your family is the first family I’ve met,” Harry counters, running his hand through Phoebe’s blonde hair. “You’re the first person to invite me to meet their family.”

Louis wants to ask what’s wrong, why he’s suddenly so dismal.

“Well this is perfect then, ain’t it? You like the girls, and I bet Phoebe would probably adopt you right now if she could.” Harry smiles in response to that. It’s small, and Louis could barely make it out in the darkness, but it’s there. Louis’ okay with this, he thinks, with dating Harry. Harry’s sweet and lovely. There’s nothing wrong with him, really, except for the sadness he sometimes can’t hide.

Louis heaves himself from his seat. Moving over closer to Harry, he leans down and envelops Harry in a hug, squishing Phobe in the process. She grumbles and shoves Louis away, accidentally getting a few fingers in his mouth. Louis laugh and stands up.

“I’ve got to go help my mum with dinner, you can just stay here if you want,” Louis says.

-

After dinner and a goodnight hug from Phoebe, Harry calls his driver to come pick him up. Louis stays by his side as they wait on the front garden for the car to arrive. They’re standing side by side, arms pressing against each other, neither boys are moving away. Harry feels a spring tighten in his chest from all the different emotions he’s feeling.

“You’re really amazing Louis,” Harry starts, he says it quietly, but in the silence, it seems to be five times louder.

“Thanks, I know,” Louis agrees confidently. Than laughs at his own joke. Harry can’t help but laugh along.  

“I’m happy you asked me out,” Harry continues, trying to get his point back on track.

“Yea, I am too,” Louis says. Harry’s delighted with the answer and brushes his fingers against Louis’ arm until they take hold of the slightly smaller hand.

Harry didn’t know that he wanted to kiss Louis until he’s watching Louis right this moment. But he wants it, he really does. Harry leans closer, waiting for Louis to notice before he moves forward. It’s short, and chaste. Just a press of the lips. Harry’s smiles as he parts from Louis, but the smile drops when he sees that Louis has an unreadable look on his face.

“Oh. I’m sorry if- Sorry. I thought it was okay,” Harry apologizes quickly, pulling his hand away from Louis’. The last few minutes of the wait is awkward, especially when Louis doesn’t say a word. When the car arrives, Harry gives out a hasty goodbye before crawling into the back. Louis is still on the grass when the car turns the corner.

Harry grimaces and bangs his head against the window. If he pulls his hair out, maybe he could pass as someone else and Louis would never notice him in the halls. He could probably change his name and move to Australia, have a go at a new life, and never see Louis’ handsome face again.

He clenches his eyes shut as his nails dig deep grooves into his palm. He wants to take it all back. Louis obviously didn’t want to kiss him. He wants to cry. He wants his sister to come home, so he could cry into her lap. He wants his mum to come home from her year long holidays in India. He wants Robin to stop sailing obsessively, and spend a day on dry land. He just want to have someone in the house at the same time that he is.

  
  


 

  
  



	3. Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All mistakes are my fault, I tried my best to correct them all, but like... I miss stuff after reading the same chapter 5 times, trying to scour out my mistakes. <33 Forgive me please comrades.

Louis feels horrible with the way that things happened. Harry looked beyond gutted yesterday and Louis reckons it’s all his fault. To be fair, he hadn’t expected Harry to kiss him. He was feeling okay with the hand holding, but the kiss came out of absolutely no where. He was led to believe that Harry didn’t engage in any intimate, physical contact. He absolutely blames Perrie and her misleading gossip.

Louis had asked Niall to pick him up for school. The sky decides it’s going to rain as Louis was helping Lottie and Fizzy to the bus. Lottie had jumped into a puddle, making water splash into her wellies and onto Louis’ trousers. Louis had to run home and change into a new, clean, dry pair of trousers and by the time he had been done, it was already getting late and Louis was not in the mood to walk. The fog was so thick that Niall almost ran over street sign and into another car that didn’t have its headlights on. It would be particularly fitting if it had started to thunder as well; it would have went well with Louis’ state of mind.

-

Louis wants to apologize, only Harry is hard to find when he’s avoiding someone.

Louis expected Harry to pop up at the end of first period but was disappointed when there was no one there. He keeps telling himself that he isn’t disappointed, but he feels a pang in his chest when the end of second period rings, and Harry still hasn’t shown up. He doesn’t even receive a text back when he hits send on his phone.

_Hey Harry, where are you at? I’m actively looking for you, but I you’ve got an invisibility cloak or summat._

Louis wants to tell himself that there’s no excuse to be this let down by the absence of the curly hair wonder, especially when he has only known Harry for two days.

At lunch, Louis plans on confronting him, but Harry’s doesn’t show up. Louis waits at his table and no one shows up but the regulars. He can’t hold conversation with neither Perrie nor Niall because he’s turning in his seat every ten minutes to survey the crowd and try to spot Harry.

By the time lunch is half over, Louis’s lost his appetite. He says as much to the worried faces of his friends and announces he’s going to the library. They don’t ask him what’s wrong and lets him leave. Louis sends them a thank you text halfway up the stairs for not prying.

Louis plans on sulking in his aisle of the library, maybe plan his plan of attack in the silence the library provides. He thinks out multiple conversation in his head for when he does spot Harry in the hall. Louis tries to map out every way to apologize without seeming to come off as desperate. Each scenario ends with him looking like he’s too emotionally invested in this and that’s the last thing he wants to come across as. He doesn’t want to care more for this than Harry because realistically, this isn’t going to last.

That’s when Louis spots a hunched over boy, sitting with a sandwich in his lap, looking all sorts of depressed. The sandwich is barely nibbled at. Louis’ stomach growls at the sight of it; he’s not even hungry. it’s the good kind that would be proudly showcased on a television commercial, not the thin ones that Louis makes for his sisters when he was too young to work the stove top.

“Harry.” Louis calls out, standing a meter or two away. He doesn’t expect for Harry to scramble to his feet, and back away as if he’s terrified. The sandwich falls onto the rough carpet, smearing a creamy sauce into the short fibers. “What’re you doing here? Honestly, sitting alone in the shadows would be something I except from a Disney villain,” Louis jokes, but quickly sobers up when Harry only makes shifty eyes toward the exit.

“I thought you were at lunch.” Harry admits quietly, kicking his laptop bag softly. He won’t look up, opting to only look down at his shoes. From this angle, his eyelashes look fake, with how long they appear. Louis clears his throat.

“I was looking-” ,Louis sighs, taking a step forward, “See, I thought that I was going to see my boyfriend at lunch, but imagine my surprise when he’s not in the cafeteria. Instead he’s obviously avoiding me, alone in the library.”

Harry is so quiet for the longest time, Louis wants to say something to interrupt the silence, but he knows that this is his fault. He wants to give Harry a chance to say something before Louis offends anyone with his habit of over talking.

A little more time passes in silence, before Louis thinks he mights as sits down while he waits. There’s no need to be physically uncomfortable when this is already emotionally uncomfortable enough for everyone involved. Louis shrugs off his jacket, and puts it in his lap as he leans up against the hardcover books lining the shelves.

Harry talks at last. “I honestly thought you didn’t want to be with me. Since you didn’t really react when I… kissed you.” Harry confesses, still standing. Louis thinks he looks like a wounded animal who needs to have an easy escape exit on hand, because he’s tiptoeing around Louis in a way that’s really obvious and not at all inconspicuous.

Louis sighs, and thinks he needs to explain his side of the story. He tilts his head without turning his face completely to Harry’s direction. He waits for Harry to make eye contact, wanting to come out as genuine, “Harry, I truly am sorry for being a prick yesterday, but I want you to understand that I still want to be your boyfriend for as long as you want to.” _For the rest of the week_ , Louis thinks bitterly.

When Harry won’t even make a sound of confirmation, Louis continues, “To be honest, I didn’t go into this liking you that much.” Harry looks to be mildly offended by this, so Louis hurries up with his apologetic explanation before Harry could storm out or something. “But now that I see how you act, like, I could see that you’re not a bad person. Actually, you seem to be a really decent person. So, umm I”m sorry for not really kissing you back when you put the moves on me yesterday. I just thought you didn’t do that with the people you dated and it took me by surprise. But umm, I didn’t mind- I don’t want to end this because of that.”

Louis lets out a long breath after that rant of stumbling words. This is the most emotional content he’s let out since watching Mufasa die and Simba was calling out for help. “Wow, now I feel like I need to punch a bear in the throat to regain some manliness.” Louis mutters, mostly to himself, but it makes Harry giggle a bit so Louis more than a little happy that he said it.

Harry sits down next to Louis, inching away from the wet sauce and a little closer to Louis. He cleans up the remains of the sandwich. Louis adamantly trains his eyes on the books across from him, determined to be casual about the tiny step forward.

“So, you still want to be with me?” He asks quietly.

“Yea, I mean, I only said that like two times.” Louis glances at Harry from the corner of his eyes. Harry doesn’t look sad, so Louis continues, ”I have had short relationships, but getting dumped three days into one, would be a new record for me.”

Harry’s looking down at his lap, and for a second Louis thinks Harry’s upset about something Louis had said. Louis tilts his head to try and peer up at Harry from underneath his curtain of curly hair. The little shit is making Louis worry that he’s still cross, when he’s sitting here fighting off a smile from his pouty pink lips.

Harry’s break period is after lunch. Louis reasons missing class for one day is alright, especially since this is one of the last days he’s going to have this with Harry. Harry’s hesitant at first, but once his head hit Louis’ thighs, they don't make any move to leave. Harry spends most of the free time with his head in Louis’ lap, his hands coming up to mess with Louis’ fringe.

“Your lap is a lot like a girl’s,” Harry comments teasingly, “Very soft, not at all boney.”

“Oh great, thanks.” Louis says dryly, rolling his eyes, “ I love having my legs called fat.”

Harry shakes his head playfully, gigging into the fabric of Louis’ trousers. “No, not fat, but like strong,” He says earnestly. Harry looks at Louis’ face for a while before Louis catches on and meets his eyes. “Louis, tell me stories about your sisters.” Harry demands gently, his hands sweeping Louis’ hair to the right, fluffing it to make it feathery at the ends. He titters at his own creation. Louis rolls his eyes.

Louis clears his throat and dives into the story about when Daisy and Phoebe were born. When Phoebe wasn’t crying when she came out, everyone thought she had passed on the way out, but then she hiccuped, and started wailing louder than Daisy.” When Louis finishes, Harry’s eyes are wide shiny, looking dazed.

“Your sisters are amazing,” Harry comments lightly. Louis nods in agreement. Harry’s hands go back up to continue on with their work to make Louis’ hair stand up into a quiff. He gives up on that quickly after the soft strands refuse to stay standing.

“I wish I could have sisters that are that adorable,” Harry yearns. He flattens his hands on Louis’ hair and starts running his fingers down so that Louis’ fringe goes into his eyes.

“Do you have any siblings?” Louis asks, blinking the sharp strands of hair out of his sight.

“I have one.” Harry volunteers slowly, pausing his arm midway up, “Her names Gemma, but she’s not home often.”

Louis' hand rests itself softly on Harry’s chests and pats him lightly. Harry doesn’t give up anything more than that, and Louis doesn’t ask.

“Hey, this makes you look so punk.” Harry laughs, sitting up suddenly nearly bumping his forehead on Louis’ chin.

Louis looks up to his forehead, all he sees is the ends of his hairs. “I’ll take your word for it,” he laughs and starts Harry spontaneously singing some pop song that could be labeled as punk if you’re flexible with music. It’s the catchy kind that’s been on the radio recently. He’s obviously not trying to be good, crowing exaggeratedly and going off tune at random points. It takes all the edge of the moment and makes Louis laugh so hard that he’s a little embarrassed of himself.

Louis finally gets a hold of the part of his brain that is self control and stops his laughter, but at this point not even self control could stop the face splitting grin that’s spread across his cheeks. From what Louis could tell, Harry is the same way, his plump lips stretched a little thin by the smile. His face is close, with Harry’s breath puffing into his face.

Louis didn’t plan for it to happen and he thinks Harry couldn’t have either. Harry moves forward, closer into Louis' head space and it’s so much better than yesterday, slow and heated. Harry’s arms comes around to wrap themselves around Louis’ head. Louis hair, flat on his forehead, mingles with Harry’s fluffy curly fringe. Harry’s lips are as soft as they look and Louis feels slightly self conscious with his thinner ones. They’re so close together that Louis’ having a hard time breathing, his nose snug up against Harry’s cheeks.

This is crazy, they’re in the library. Louis doesn’t even want this, especially not when he knows he can’t have it again when Harry finds a new girls to do this with. The period’s going to change, and students are going to see. Louis grabs Harry by the back of his hair, pulling him away with Harry making a pained strangled whine. He pulled a bit harder than he intended and there’s a few strands of Harry’s hair stuck to Louis’ clammy hands.

Louis breathes in fresh air that his warm chest and suffocated lungs need. His nose side by side with Harry’s, his top lip still touching Harry’s from where their mouths are open panting for breaths of oxygen. “We’ll get caught.” It’s Louis’ excuse, its also a good example of a shit excuse, but it’s not a lie. Louis can’t exactly come out and say, _I don’t want to get in too deep with you because because I'm starting to like you too much._

Louis pats Harry’s jaw lightly and moves away, his head falls back hitting the rows of books behind him. He inhales in the cold hair that isn’t Harry and his head clears.

“I know.” Harry exhales, trying to even out his breathing. His hand is still around Louis’ neck. Louis slowly extracts himself the circle of Harry's arms and coughs awkwardly, not sure how this is happening.

The bell rings, and a few minutes later there are footsteps making its way further into the library. Harry is a little slow on the uptake, still staring dazed at Louis’ face. Louis grins and maneuvers Harry into sitting next to him instead of awkwardly hovering from where he was recently straddling Louis’ legs. Harry finally gets with the situation, and complies with the way Louis’ moving him to sit up on his own. Harry’s pulling his oversized school sweater over his lap and Louis just then realizes that Harry had a bit more of a reaction than Louis. He smirks into his shoulder, a little bit too proud at being able to do that to Harry.

It’s a close call, because Niall comes peeks his head out into the opening of the aisle.

“Oh there you are,” Niall says cheerfully, “Though you would’ve went home or summat, you weren’t there last period.” Louis forces himself to look natural. His face doesn’t feel hot, so he hopes it doesn’t look red. Harry on the other hand is flushed. His ears and most of his face is a bright red, his smooth skin marred with what would look like a light sunburn.

This is not the first time that Louis thanks Jesus for the fact that Niall is belovedly oblivious. Niall sits down next to Louis’ other side, his head and back resting on Louis’ shoulder, his front facing out to the entrance of the aisle. “Ugh, class was so boring without you Lou, I was resting me feet on the bloke in front of me, but it just wasn’t the same, ya know? He kept trying to push my feet off him.”

Louis nods amused, his hand playing with the hair on Niall’s nape from habit.

“Yea I know. I’m basically the light to everyone’s life, to be honest,” Louis admits confidently.

That’s when he feels Harry pawing his shoulder on his other side. Harry has his brows scrunched together, and a devastating pout on his face.

“I don’t allow cheating, Lou!” Harry states, bringing his face to Louis’ shoulder, burrowing his nose into Louis' shirt. He’s watching Niall with half his face hiding behind Louis’ arm. The pout is still there. It’s all too soon for Louis to feel this enamored with this kid.

“Niall,” Louis laughs, shrugging his left arm pushing Niall off slightly.

Niall lifts himself from his leaned back position, his phone falls to his lap from where he was scrolling. .

“What?” Niall asks, turning to face Louis, his eyes meeting Harry’s. He waggles his blond brows at Louis before chuckling “Oh, you’re a taken man now huh?” He laughs at his own joke and sits up entirely from Louis arm. “Gotta say, the girls have never been this possessive of your time or your love.” Niall jokes, much to both Louis and Harry’s surprise Niall goes to Harry’s side.

He snuggles up into Harry’s side in the same way he did with Louis. “Haz, loosen up a bit yeah? Your skinny arse arm is too bony as it is.”

Niall goes back to reading whatever it was on his phone while Louis grins at Harry’s mild discomfort. Harry looks to be only mildly uncomfortable, but happy to be treated like hes one of them.

“Is this cheating?” He asked in a hushed tone into Louis’ ear.

Louis just laughs. It’s ridiculous really. Niall is like this with everyone. “No, Niall is in a relationship with the world.”

Niall laughs at that, ¨I would be offended if it weren’t true. Shouldn’t you be going to class Harry?”

“Oh umm, I was just, well Louis stayed with me during my free period, so I wanted to stay with him - with you guys during yours.”

“Oh, so you both are going to mutually destroy your overpriced education in the name of love?”

“It’s just for today,” Louis defends tiredly, turning to rest his head up against Harry’s. Being emotional is really exhausting, and he’s only going to close his eyes for a second.

Only for a second turns into Harry and Niall prodding his side trying to get him to pick his face off Harry’s lap. He somehow migrated from shoulder to thighs without waking up. There’s something to be said about heavy sleepers.

“Louis, you’ve got to get more sleep at home, mate. I honestly think you’re going to just fall over one day.” Niall comments, shoving his headphones into his pocket. “Also, you guys want to come over today? My mum hired a new chef. He’s Italian, heard he makes really good Shrimp Scampi.”

Louis whips drool off his cheek, and apologizes for getting a bit onto Harry’s trousers. He turns to Niall, “You heard he makes it well, which means you ate a few plates yesterday.”

Niall laughs boisterously. “Well, how else was I going to know if it was really good or not?”

Harry claims he has nothing planned after school, and Louis gets his neighbor to look after the girls.

-

“Yea, I heard that his nose is broken. There was like blood everywhere.”

“Oh Christ, poor Harry. I can’t believe anyone could even think about hurting his face.”

“Oh honey, I know. I mean that kid’s face is like, God’s gift to mankind.”

“Do you think we could go see visit him after classes are done?”

“I would, but like, my mum promised me that we were going to go get my new Fendi Purse today.”

Louis rolls his eyes, though more in anger than annoyance. Louis stopped at his locker to pick up a book he didn’t get a chance to grab before. Two girls a few rows down are talking in hushed voices, but it’s loud enough that Louis overhears.

He clears his throat, and tries to keep the venom out of his tone as he inches into their two person circle. “Do either of you know what class Harry has right now?”

They jump a bit, Louis having just came up to them from nowhere. One of the girls smile gently at Louis before looking to her friend, she turns back to Louis curiously. “Umm I think maybe he’s in medical. I would check there first. But if he’s not there his next class is Sister Kirkland’s class, urm room three-o-four I think.”

He reluctantly mutters out his thanks before turning to leave.

-

Harry is sitting on one of the small white cots that lined up against the walls in medical. His head is tilted back, and he has a tissue held up against his nose. Louis sees a bit of red that’s soaking through the paper, but other than that Harry seems to be okay. His nose looks fine, not at all broken, Louis thinks. He’s got to stop taking exaggerated rumors too close to heart.

“Harry, are you okay?”

Harry turns to him, and it’s a bit awkward how he’s trying to see Louis without leveling his sight line with the ground. He smiles around the wad of tissues hiding half his face. “Hi Louis! Yea I’m fine. Just had a bit of an accident.”

“An accident.” Louis deadpans, coming closer. He yanks a few napkins from the box on the front desk, and trades it for Harry’s soiled clumps. He tosses it into the bin next to Harry’s cot, before taking a seat next to him. “Are you sure you’ve got that right?”

Harry nods without conviction.

Louis sighs, “You’re going to have to be honest here. I don’t like lies.”

Harry explains in a quiet nasally voice, “Someone just didn’t like that I was getting special treatment from you, since you were sticking up for me on Monday and than we - you practiced with me yesterday morning.”

“Who did it?” Louis asked, trying to keep the frustrated tone out of his question. Harry was obviously trying to leave out names. “And please tell me you got a punch in too.”

“I don’t wanna say.” Harry murmured, _predictably_ , suddenly using the injury in his favour. All of a sudden Harry can’t seem to talk louder than a whisper. “I mean, I don’t think it would help any, if everyone’s knows who um, punched me. It would be easier to let it go. Forgive and forget and all that. Revenge is stupid.”

“You’re a much better person than I am.” Louis affirms, as the bell echos through the room “I’m not letting this go, but I’ve got class. We’ll talk more about it later.”

“Yea, yea of course. Get to class Lou.” Louis’ ears pick up the shortened version of his name, it’s the first time Harry’s called him anything but Louis. Harry’s waving Louis away with his head tilted back, his hand is slightly waving in the wrong direction, and Louis is a bit too enamored for this.

“I’ll see you later.” Louis promises.

-

Louis never done this before, but he feels like he needs to, considering the fact that Harry’s already been in a fight once because of him. He feels a tight urge to protect Harry, even though he doesn’t know what or who from. He finds out what class Harry has last, and it wasn’t hard, the younger girls are a little too easily influenced. He hurries to his locker, and runs up to Harry’s class. He waits outside the door. He’s one step closer to turning into a cliche, and possibly a creep.

Harry’s the first one out of his class and he looks to be in quite a rush. He literally runs into Louis in his haste. Louis steadies him with a wide grin and a bright ,¨Hello love.¨ - before steering Harry away from the doorway with a hand on his lower back.

Harry leads the way to the direction of his locker, Louis following closely behind, always a step behind so that Harry won’t see if Louis glares at anyone behind Harry’s back. Anyone who looks at Harry in any way less than joyful, receives a variety of threatening glares in return.

-

They get changed, and geared up for archery practice with relative ease. Everything seems normal, no one acts out of line. Louis would have never have guessed that anyone in this crowd is responsible for Harry’s slightly bruised nose. That is until the underclassmen are taking the stand for aim practice, and someone from the back shoves Harry towards the platform. It’s very subtle, and Louis wouldn’t have even noticed if he wasn’t keeping keen tabs on Harry’s person.

Louis grabs the kid by the shirt and shoves him back off the platform. “Back off.” He hisses, giving the other student his most venomous glare. Louis hesitantly releases the clench he has on the other guy’s shirt.  
  
  


The other kid stumbles back from the release of his shirt and wipes off the fabric where Louis touched, as if he’s above Louis.“So it’s true then eh? You’re letting that _slut,_ suck your cock?” The thing is, he has bad breath and he’s leaning close, breathing in Louis face, so he can say it into Louis’ ear.

Louis scrunchies his face, grits his teeth, and shoves hard, making the taller guy trip back ways into someone behind him. “How do you know I’m not the one sucking?” Louis tones back evenly, sneering as the kid stands up taller. The kid’s bigger though, broader in his shoulders, but Louis’ not backing down from this punk.

“Louis, stop.” Harry’s tugging gently on Louis’ shirt, and his voice is barely loud enough to hear.

Louis turns around to face Harry, and the boy looks like he’s closing in on a panic attack. “Is he the one who punched you?” Louis asks, his tone is angry but he doesn’t want Harry to think he’s angry at him.

Harry gives the smallest of nods, and Louis reacts almost instantly. He swings around, fist clenched. His knuckles are pulsing with how much pain it’s in after it makes contact with the square of the other kid’s cheekbone. No one has time to react to catch him so the kid falls back to the ground with a loud thud. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. He has his hand up holding his nose and there’s red coming through the gaps of his fingers. Louis feels a good that at least the pain in his hand is worth it.

“You can go tell the coach I punched you,” Louis proposes loudly, “but then I will say that you punched Harry first.” He crouches down to the kid’s level, and fixes the other boy with the most threatening expression he could muster. “Or, you could go to medical, and we can call this even, no one gets in trouble.”Louis pauses and then continues, ”but if you even look at Harry wrong again, I will end you.” The circle of bodies that grew to crowd around the little fight is now talking in hushed tones, gasps, and a few kids egging the fight to get more violent.

Louis is a little worried that the other student is going to pick the first option, because he _does_ have his scholarship to think about. There’s a possibility that his scholarship could be taken away because of a fight, regardless that the other kid threw the first punch on Harry.

“Fine.” The other kid grits out. Louis gets out an internalized breath of relief and stands back up. “I was pretty okay with you, Louis. But it’s personal now. Enjoy your week with the school slut.” He gets up with a hisses, still holding his nose together, so the threat he throws back at Louis loses a lot of it’s tough vibe, he sounds like he has a bad case of a cold. He shoves his way out of the circle, his broader shoulders hits Louis’, before he stomps away.

The crowd breaks up and the few girls that are in Archery all coo over the swollen skin on and around Louis’ knuckles. Harry gently pushes the girls aside and takes Louis’ hand gingerly in his instead. He’s tentatively skimming the raised skin with his finger tips. It stings, but Louis doesn’t say anything, willing to let Harry do what he wants.

-

The coach arrives a good ten minutes later after everyone’s already settled down and practice has began.

Paul, the archery instructor is not religious. He was hired because there was no one that met the requirement, that could come in, so they hired a professional instead.

They’re both standing on the back rise, supervising the other students on the front platform when Paul brings it up, “I heard that there was a little fight before I got here.” Paul has his arms crossed, which means he’s in adult mode, rather than a friend mode.

“I- yea. I punched one of the lower sixth students.” Louis says confidently. He doesn’t regret it, he’s also not going to lie to Paul.

“Is it related to what I heard about Harry getting punched earlier today?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want to get involved with student relationships, I could care less with who you date. But don’t let it get to physical violence again or I’ll be forced to make some tough decisions that you and I won’t like.”

“Yea, I get it.” Louis agrees, and thinks for a moment before thanking Paul. “Thanks for not reporting me, Paul.”

“Yea, can’t take my best archer off the team.” Paul sighs, and slaps Louis’ back before turning his attention back to the students practicing up front.

Harry’s there as soon as Paul steps off to help another student with their posture, leaving Louis alone to supervise. “Are you in trouble?” Louis turns around. Harry’s shorter than Louis from the rise of the platform, and he looks like a scared kitten from this angle, his eyes big and round.

“No, I should be, but Paul is reasonable. I’m also his favourite.” Louis grins.

“I don’t have favourites.” Paul yells exaggeratingly tough across the platforms.

Louis just laughs before stepping off so he’s at the same level as Harry. He leans in close and pretends to whisper,” No, he’s lying. Everyone knows I’ve been favourite for forever.”

Harry gives a weak smile at the banter. “I’m glad you’re not in trouble, and I’m sorry for being why you fought him in the first place.” Louis nods his understanding and raises his fist so it’s face level with Harry.

“You can kiss my hand in return.” He’s joking. It’s obvious that he’s joking, he has no way to make his voice any more sarcastic, even if he wanted to. Which is why Louis’ eyes practically bug out when Harry actually leans in and gives his knuckles a light kiss. Louis retracts his arm faster than his heart jumping. He’s watching Harry, and Harry has the most annoyingly adorable smile on his face right now. “Get back to practice!” Louis snaps playfully, willing his face to not look so fond.

-

Unlike Monday, where Louis went off on his own, today Harry is close behind, following Louis to the car park. Niall’s sitting in the driver seat of his car, and he looks to be sleeping with his face smushed up against the window. Louis taps on the glass, shaking Niall like a fish being tapped on from inside a glass bowl.

“I’m starting to feel like I’m only useful for my car,” Niall yells jokingly through the glass, unlocking his car. Louis laughs takes the back seat with Harry.

“Mate, you know you’re always good for your food too.” Niall puffs out proudly at that. It’s saying something when you’re not offended by the fact that people know you by the food you provide.

“Oh I forgot to mention, Greg is going to be home today too.” Niall says absently, pulling out of the parking space.

Niall’s house is the sort you see on television. Where celebrities show off how much money they have. The only difference is that instead of liquids and an empty refrigerator, Niall’s is filled to the brim with all sorts of edible treasures.

Louis lets the butler take his jacket. He takes his off shoes at the front door like Niall does. He has a sneaking suspicion that that’s not where everyone’s suppose to leave their shoes though, because by the time that Louis is getting ready to leave, he always finds his plimsolls in the mudroom closet instead of where he left them.

“Lets eat first lads, I’m starving.” Niall announces, pulling out a bar stool at the breakfast counter in the kitchen. Louis and Harry follow suit, having the same thing that Niall asks for. They watch the cook get the ingredients ready, before Niall turns on the telly on the far side of the kitchen. They watch a little bit of football and a recorded episode of Ellen before their meals are ready and placed in front of him. Harry and Niall don’t seem fazed, but Louis thanks the chef graciously before picking up his utensils.

They’re joking and laughing at the program that’s on, some stand up comedian on the American station, _Comedy Central,_ when Greg comes in to grab a beer from the fridge. Louis shouts his hello alongside Niall flicking a stray piece of lettuce in Greg’s direction.

“Hey Louis, Niall-” Greg shouts back. There’s a pause in his loud voice before he’s talking again, “Harry? Hey mate, what’re you doing here?”

Harry looks up like a deer caught in headlights, his eyes wide and the light in Niall’s kitchen making them seem _green,_ green. “Oh, hi Greg. I had no idea you were Niall’s brother.”

Greg looks to Louis and Niall and laughs. “I had no idea you were Niall’s friend.” Greg opens his beer with his teeth. The sound that’s made is a sick grounding teeth on metal way, the metal cap fall to the tiled ground with a clang. He comes over to the counter. “How’s it going with Taylor?”

“Umm, I don’t- Taylor’s good I think.”

Greg lets out a laugh. “‘S alright, I get it. I don’t like talking bout my girls in front of Niall either. That girl can’t get enough of you though, eh?” Greg leans closer and lowers his voice, as if that casts any privacy for their conversation. As if Niall and Louis couldn’t hear everything they’re saying. “She booked a table for you guys at my place this Sunday. Says it’s a surprise, so don’t say I told you.” He saunters away laughing, taking another slug of his drink.

It’s all silence as Greg makes his way upstairs to his old room when he used to live here too.

Niall coughs into his napkin and looks to Harry with questioning eyes. Louis is feeling a drop in his stomach, he puts down his fork and clears his throat.

“So what’s that about?” Niall asks, turning off the telly. Louis wishes he didn’t. The silence the black television creates, is making him a tad light headed.

“Taylor’s someone who I went out with before Louis.” Harry explains quietly without more prodding. “I didn’t know that she was planning to urm- hang out with me this weekend.” He’s turning to Louis, tilting his head to try and meet Louis’ down facing eyes.

‘Hang out’ is a very loose term for what Greg hosts at his club. Greg is notorious for his parties, his clubs are well known for old money hookups, it’s all very exclusive. It’s something Louis couldn’t get into even if he wanted and Niall has never shown any interest in. Harry, seems to be able to get in though, he’s known enough that the club owner knows him by name.

“Harry, this is sounding very much against your favour right now,” Niall says awkwardly, completely unlike him. Niall is everything, but he has never been awkward.

“It’s not like it seems at all. I haven’t even seen her since Monday.” Harry pleads, lightly touching Louis on his left arm. He amends when Louis shrugs him off, “Like, before I met you, Monday.”

“Was she the one who dropped you off?” Louis asks.

“Urm, yes,” Harry admits quietly, “That’s her.” Louis doesn’t know if it’s better or worst. He knows what she looks like, but it also means that she’s fucking gorgeous.

“And you didn’t plan on seeing her?”

“No!” Harry exclaims, grabbing onto Louis arm, “No, I’ve never met up with her when I’m with someone else. Cross my heart.”

Louis smiles grimly, then it makes sense for this Taylor to plan on meeting up with Harry on Sunday. Harry plans on being single before the week’s over. It’s kind of pathetic of Louis, because he _knows_ this wasn’t permanent, and yet he’s still feels disappointed. He’s got to stop pretending that this is going to last, because it isn’t. Harry isn’t going to come visit his sisters once this is over, he won’t be there to wait for Louis after class ether. There’s no point getting upset when Harry’s going to meet up with someone after this week, when Louis knew the conditions before he jokingly asked. _Jokingly_ , this was a joke anyways, it wasn’t suppose to be a serious thing to begin with.

Louis feels the angry pricks of well up behind his eyes, but he clears his throat to rid himself of them before he talks again. “Yea, no it’s fine. I believe you. If you say it’s nothing, than it’s nothing.”

Louis could feel Harry watching his face, he grins widely, being sure to show all his teeth.

“You’re really okay?”

“Perfect.” Louis chirps, picking up his fork.

-

When he gets home that night he huffs and falls down into the sofa.

He lets his sisters sit on him and cuddle him. They’re especially tactile today, they must sense the lack of Louis’ usual cheer. He’s fine. A night’s sleep and he’ll even believe his own words. Why is it that Louis thinks he’s taking this harder than he should be taking it.

**Author's Note:**

> SkyRockety @ Tumblr 
> 
> Talk to me? I'm a friendly duckling.


End file.
